Invariant set based sliding mode control for near-space vehicles with attitude constraints

In this article, a robust attitude control scheme, which is called sliding mode control with unidirectional auxiliary surfaces (UAS-SMC), is proposed for the near-space vehicle with attitude constraints and time-varying unknown disturbance. Firstly, the positively invariant sets are designed with the UAS-SMC method. The invariant property of these sets can be utilized to guarantee the attitude constraints. Secondly, a UAS nonlinear disturbance observer is firstly developed for the NSV with time-varying unknown disturbance. By introducing the information of UAS surfaces, the performance of this observer is enhanced. The convergence of all closed-loop signals is rigorously proved via Lyapunov analysis method under the developed robust UAS-SMC scheme. Finally, simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed attitude control scheme.